Episode 255 The Power of Writing as Play with Nalini Singh

Nalini Singh is a romance writer. Or, she was a romance writer until she decided she wanted to write a thriller. Jess and Sarina had so much fun talking about genre hopping and writing the books that speak to you. There&#8217;s no requirement that we stay in our lanes, Nalini reminded us. We also took some time to lament our dearly missed in-person writers conferences and Nalini gushed about the joy of afternoon teas with her superfans. <br/><br/>Sarina often points to Nalini&#8217;s email newsletter as one of the best she&#8217;s read, so <a href="https://nalinisingh.com/extras/">we are linking to it here</a> and you should absolutely sign up. She offers bonus content and glances behind the scenes of her life as a writer in New Zealand.<br/><br/>Finally, Nalini reminds of the power of play in writing. She wrote her thrillers as exercises in play, something with no deadlines attached, and offers this sage advice: <br/><br/>&#8220;Don&#8217;t be afraid to write the book that wants to be different from all the rest.&#8221;<br/><br/>With that, go forth and play with your words, but <a href="https://nalinisingh.com/">go visit Nalini Singh&#8217;s website first.</a> <br/><br/>#AmReading<br/><br/>Nalini: <a href="https://bookshop.org/contributors/j-d-robb">The entire J.D. Robb backlist</a><br/><br/>Sarina: Darkroom by Kate Willoughby (part of Sarina&#8217;s <a href="https://hearteyespress.com/wotn">World of True North</a>)<br/><br/>Jess: <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/1183/9780062348685">Simon v. The Homo Sapiens Agenda</a> by Becky Albertalli<br/><br/>KJ here, popping in to tell y&#8217;all about what happened for me with Author Accelerator this week. I needed a fresh &#8220;cold read&#8221; of a book that everyone close to me has now read about twelve times, so Author Accelerator set me up with a brand new coach. For $2k (yes, you have to pay for expertise) she read my 320 page manuscript in a weekend and answered all my questions (I had some very specific things I needed help with). I&#8217;m wrapping up a revisio